NASA received a proposed $17.5 billion in President Obama's budget recommendations for fiscal year 2015, released March 4. The proposal, down from the $17.6 billion that NASA received in the 2014 budget, will support the space agency’s goals of launching the James Webb Space Telescope in 2018, extending the life of the International Space Station until 2024 and sending humans to an asteroid by 2025 and to Mars in the 2030s.

The proposal includes funding for about 35 missions being prepared fo...